In recent years, information apparatuses, such as tablet personal computers (PCs), notebook PCs, mobile phones, and smartphones, have come into widespread use. In a typical product of the information apparatuses that have previously been in common use, a display surface of a display part is hidden inside in a state in which a body part and the display part are superposed over each other and closed, and when the display part hinged to the body part is opened, the display surface appears. In contrast, in a typical product of the information apparatuses that are now in widespread use, a display surface of a display part appears on a top side because of a touch panel, which has also come into widespread use, in a state in which a body part and the display part are superposed over each other and closed, and input may be performed through a touch panel without exposing a keyboard by opening the display part.
The above-mentioned information apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 4-218820. In the information apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 4-218820, a body case and a display device are coupled with a support unit including a first arm and a second arm, and when the first arm is caused to slide along a long groove provided to a side surface of the body case, the display device tilts while sliding and a keyboard of the body case appears. That is, a tablet PC style in which a display device is superposed over a body case is changed into a notebook PC style in which a display device is caused to tilt and slide at the same time. In the information apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 4-218820, a tilt angle of the display device in a state in which the keyboard is exposed is changed by causing a slide axis of the first arm to engage with one of cut portions provided to the long groove on the side surface of the body case.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-55736 discloses an electronic apparatus in which a display surface of a display part appears on a top side in a state in which a body part and the display part are superposed over each other and thus, a thin lid is attached over the display surface to protect the display surface.
In the electronic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-55736, a fixing axis provided to a front end of the display part is movable along a slide rail of the body part and a rotary encoder provided to the body part and a rotation hinge provided to a central portion of the display part are coupled with a link arm.
When the display part is pulled up, the link arm rises and the fixing axis moves in the slide rail, and then the display part tilts while sliding toward the rear of the body part. A plurality of tilt angles of the display part may be set by fixing the link arm at a plurality of angles with a latch mechanism of the rotary encoder.
However, in the display device or the electronic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 4-218820 or Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-55736, a lower end of the display part is moved toward the front side on which the keyboard is arranged when the tilt angle of the display part is changed after the display part has tilted from the body part, and thus, the length of the keyboard in a depth direction may be reduced and the operability may be decreased. In addition, since a space between the position of the lower end of the display part at the time of raising the display part to the highest level, and the keyboard is hidden or exposed by the tilt angle changing movement of the display part, it may be impossible to arrange a small display part, an operation button, or the like in the space and utilize the space advantageously.